One really big reason for our decision to homeschool was curriculum. I think it confuses children to learn at school that the earth is millions of years old and then come home or go to church and learn that it is only thousands. Do they believe what teachers tell them or what mamas and dads tell them? As parents we want our children to most definitely listen to us and share our beliefs. However, we tell them that their teachers are right. Just downright confusing, if you ask me.
I wanted Jamie and I to have full control of what and how our children learned. I wanted their learning to be consistent.
We begin every school day with bible time. The boys read silently for fifteen or twenty minutes then we have a bible lesson. This consumes about an hour of our day. I will blog tomorrow on the bible curriculum that I use. Today I want to focus on the bible itself.
There is no greater tool than the B-I-B-L-E.
It covers (his)tory, science, grammar, character education, poetry, comprehension, vocabulary, memorization...and the list goes on. We have a weekly memory verse that we learn.
2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
This was our verse for the first week of school. I love this verse. I want to have this done in vinyl letters to put on my wall in our school room.
This weeks memory verses are the entire chapter of Psalm 23. We will more than likely work on it for another couple of weeks, since it has 6 verses.
This is one way we work on handwriting also. The boys have to copy the verse or verses into their journal once in print and another time in cursive. Sometimes we make a game of it. They have to copy each word of the verse onto a card then mix them up and put them back into the correct order. Again, handwriting and also memorization.
We have a word of the week also chosen from the bible. We use that word as often as we can and in as many different ways as we can.
I believe we should teach children that there is fun as well as everyday relevance to be found in God's word. I seriously doubt they would get this in any other school setting. That is why we chose to make sure that our children get it daily. That is certainly not to say that if they were in a different setting we could not do these things at home anyway. We could and you can too! I am just sharing our hearts here and why we do things the way we do them.
The bible is certainly a multi-purpose tool. One to be used, gleaned from, learned, and loved.
Psalm 119:16
I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
Much love,
I love your schedule of having the kids read for 15-20 minutes and then doing a lesson together. It is setting them up for success in their own quiet time when they are older. I didn't have someone set that example for me, and now at 22 still struggle with making time with God a priority.
ReplyDeleteThis one really hit home for me. I don't know if you knew how I was brought up (definitely different)? My mother and my siblings & I are Episcopalian & my father was a non practicing Jew. As a child we were totally submersed socially with the Jewish culture; however we attended church, Sunday School & Sunday and Wednesday night fellowship at our church. Now between a very progressive elementary school, church & friends I had more questions then I even knew how to ask for help with. My maternal grandmother, Mia, realized my confusion in the summer before 5th grade and provided me with the most comforting answer a child could hear. She told me "to listen and trust my parents, because they are good people and will guide you down the right path".
ReplyDeleteThis is a hard situation for all children, especially in today's world. Luckily your children have amazing guidance!
love the that scripture memorization lumped into handwriting. Brilliant! I hope you know I am taking notes!
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